Research profiled in La Opinion by Pilar Marrero

Read the article from the site here: http://www.laopinion.com/noticias-inmigracion/investigadora-menores-huyen-no-emigran-ninos-migrantes . Below the original Spanish article, I translate it into English.

The majority of Honduran and Salvadoran children and adolescents that migrate are “fleeing, not migrating,” from violence, extortion, kidnapping and death in their schools and neighborhoods, and in the case of Guatemalans, particularly indigenous youth have a strong motivation to leave discrimination and extreme poverty.

This is what lecturer and researcher, Elizabeth Kennedy, at San Diego State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara explained. She has conducted extensive research about the causes of emigration among children from these three countries.

At this time, Kennedy is in El Salvador, where she has interviewed more than 400 child migrants, and is in contact withs one during their journey to arriving at the United States. She has also been to Honduras and Guatemala to look at this topic.

What are the similarities and differences between the causes of emigration in the three countries from where the majority of child migrants come?

In Guatemala, the most common reason is poverty among indigenous people, even though many young people from urban areas suffer violence, gang threats and are victims of crime. The majority of indigenous are also persecuted for their race.

In Honduras and El Salvador, gang persecution, extortion and threats are the most common. In El Salvador, the major problem is between [transnational gangs] MS13 and Mara 18, and this affects the entire country. In Honduras, there are also gangs, there are traffickers, there are cartels. The “truce” between gangs never worked in Honduras because there are so many criminal actors at play.

In El Salvador, after the “truce,” homicides went down, but disappearances, kidnappings, extortion and assault rose. Now, they are finding numerous mass, clandestine graves.

What is the reason for the violence, for the deaths?

Control of territory to conduct criminal activity. There’s always something that happens with drugs. When they decided to break up cartels in Colombia, they moved to Mexico, and now that they’re being attacked in Mexico, they are moving to Central America and the Caribbean. There is a flow of resources, arms and money… there is more money and also a more organized network because the gangs can now sell drugs.

Are the gangs involved in human trafficking?

Supposedly, yes even though much of their money comes from extortion and drug sell. Or, they are contracted killers.

According to your research, do children come alone to the US, or do they have family?

90% of children who have attempted migrating that I have interviewed in El Salvador have a family member in the U.S. 50% of them have their mom, dad or both. But there is something important: only 35% say that they are emigrating there for family reunification. They don’t only go to the U.S. If the family is in Mexico or Panama, they go there. They are escaping. 60% of children are fleeing — they are not migrating — from threats or violence in their neighborhoods and schools. They feel a necessity to migrate because here they fear for their lives.

And why more now?

The quantity has increased consistently since 2011, even though it’s true that this year the increase is larger. Violence in El Salvador has increased recently. Now, in the month of May, there were 401 homicides, an average of 12 per day. This is equal or higher than before the “truce.” In Honduras, there are 15 per day in a country of 8 million inhabitants.

Who migrantes? Are they more likely adolescents or young children?

78% are adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17. Most young ones are accompanied by family even though I have seen three eight-year-old children that traveled without their family and with a coyote. Normally, if they are not accompanied it is because they are adolescents. Sometimes, a 5-year-old arrives alone, but s/he did not leave alone.

Is it true that when they arrive, they give themselves up and do not try to hide within the U.S.?

This is what they say and what I thought before coming, but I am in contact with 20 youth who I met here and are now in the U.S. None of them wanted to present themselves to Customs and Border Protection. They preferred to cross undetected if it was possible. Four were detained, and 16 were not.

What do they know about the future that awaits them in the U.S.?

The truth is that when they are here [in El Salvador], they don’t know much, but perhaps they hear things along the way. This can change between El Salvador and the border wight he United States. Here, they don’t know, maybe in the journey, they tell them things.